1. Field
The present application relates generally to the operation of data networks, and more particularly, to methods and systems for blackout provisioning in a distribution network.
2. Background
Data networks, such as wireless communication networks, have to trade off between services customized for a single terminal and services provided to a large number of terminals. For example, the distribution of multimedia content to a large number of resource limited portable devices (subscribers) is a complicated problem. Therefore, it is very important for network administrators, content retailers, and service providers to have a way to distribute content and/or other network services in a fast and efficient manner and in such a way as to increase bandwidth utilization and power efficiency.
In current content delivery/media distribution systems, foreground and background services are packed into a transmission frame and delivered to devices on a network. For example, a communication network may utilize Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) to broadcast services from a network server to one or more mobile devices. For example, the foreground services comprise real time streaming video and/or audio that generally needs to be processed when received. The background services comprise advertisements, files or other data.
It has become increasing desirable to blackout selected content from distribution to selected regions. For example, it may be desirable to blackout the presentation of a sporting event from distribution to the region where the sporting event is taking place. This encourages the sale of tickets to the actual event.
One technique used to blackout selected content from selected regions is to prevent the transmission of the content to those regions. Unfortunately, this technique places a burden on the distribution network to precisely control how content is distributed over the network. Another problem associated with content blackout is that of device tampering. For example, if a device is tampered with, it is possible for unauthorized reception and rendering of blacked-out content to occur.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system that operates to provide blackout provisioning and that operates to securely blackout content in selected regions in a distribution network.